Sunday, May 13, 2007

signs they are a changin'

I am in California right now. I saw a sign today that said:

TRAFFIC CALMING AHEAD

Can someone help me understand what this means? Feel free to leave your best theories in the comments section.

In other news, this greasy hamburger joint (NATIONS) has been replaced with a great Mexican restaurant called "El Belasco" or some such. It was great.

6 comments:

  1. Was it a permanent sign, or a message on a scrolling text bar? If it was permanent, it may refer to the fact that traffic generally dissipates in the vicinity of the area ahead. If it's just a flashing message, perhaps their was some vicious, heated traffic that is now calming down...it still doesn't make sense, but then again, neither does a lot of things in this world.

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  2. It was a permanent sign.

    Someone e-mailed me a theory that it's a British sign curiously misplaced into the United States.

    Nathan... check with Larissa, will ya?

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  3. Well, you were in California after all. They have many kinds of remedies for stress. Maybe there is some mood-altering plant from (and named in) Asia called "Traffic Calming," offered at a roadside stand just ahead of where you saw the sign.

    Of course, while the sign may be permanent, the roadside stand probably isn't, because they haven't quite legalized Traffic Calming yet.

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  4. Anonymous7:08 PM

    Pulling over for some "calming" at a CA rest stop? Classy...

    Adam

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  5. Well on first read I read "claming" not calming. So I was thinking some where along the lines of a giant clam down the road that would squash you if you weren't paying attention. Now that I know its calming...I guess maybe its to warn you that there is a cloud of sedatives up ahead to calm frazzled nerves.

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  6. Clearly it was a misprint. They left out a space between "a" and "head." In light of this, the sign makes obvious sense. There is a detached head wandering the road, and discombobulated as the head is, he needs some sort of order and structure to bring peace to his life. The flow of traffic presents a sort of stability and consistency to his life and from the spectators' viewpoint becomes, Traffic Calming a Head."

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